Monday, 27 February 2012

Happy Monday! Monday already....where does the time in the weekend disappear to?!

I'm hoping to be back to a more regular bloggin' schedule after the chaotic first week back at school (mind you, with an OFSTED inspection due any moment now it's unlikey!) and I'm kicking off the week with this li'l card:

FYI: This card is tiny! It's only 3x3 but my piccy makes it seem much bigger!

This was created for our new (or maybe not so new as I'm a week late typing about it here!) challenge on our PTI Blog: Needle and Thread. Gotta admit that I panicked a little when I saw those words...I didn't have time to reacquaint myself with Machiney (my much neglected sewing machine), to patch up our love/hate relationship. Instead I grabbed my paper piercer and some bakers twine and got busy!

No doubt this card will end up in my guy's packed lunch...but I gotta admit that it's so cute that I wanna keep it :)

So, 'needle and thread' - what does it mean to you? No matter what those words inspire you to do, do it, share the inspiration and enter our challenge!

Wishing you all a super duper week! I'll be back on Thursday with a new CASE Study so until then, adiós!

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Happy Friday-Eve, Peeps! I'm happy to report the first week back at work is zooming by so quickly - I could easily do 5 more of these before we break up for the Easter holidays *wink*

So let's start to taste the weekend this Friday-Eve with a sweet new CASE Study:

This is Karola's final week with us as our muse. I've loved seeing how her creations have totally inspired me regardless of the fact that our styles are so different. Let's see what's up for studying this week and send her off with style:

The strip of striped card was simply created by using the chisel end of my Promarkers and a ruler - easy peasy!Karola'saccordion folded flowers also inspired me to ink up the gorgeous flowers from my Verve set: Hope Blooms.

So there you have it! This is how Karola inspired me, now it's your turn to show us how Karola inspired you! Need more inspiration? Check out the rest of the CASE Study DT:

Right - I really must dash: this first week back has been M.A.N.I.C! Late night meetings have given me hardly any time to do anything outside of work or flipping pancakes this week so apologies for my absence!

Sunday, 19 February 2012

I hope you're all having a lovely, relaxing weekend! Mine has been manic: trying to cram in all the things I'd told myself I do during my week off - ha!

During one of my many indulgent inky sessions this past week, I've been having more fun with my Uniko Studio stamps. I really wanted to play with the time-sheet image from Extra Time:

I think I was still be on a bit of a vintagey/distress inks phase when I made this...! I promise you I've created some more, pure white CAS creations since making this....mind you, never hurts to experiment I guess!

Anyways, back to the card: This card uses a really simple masking technique. I simply cut a few masks of this image and stamped away to create a background. Easy peasy when the image to mask is so easy to trim :)

To apply the ribbon, I used my craft knife to cut two slits either side of the focal point and threaded the ribbon with an aim to give this one layer-card a bit more depth.

Finally, I couldn't resist using Chompy! (my corner chomper) to round all four corners of the card to match the original shape of the time-sheet image. Now I see the pic of my card I wished I'd used the smaller corner setting now...hmmm....hindsight - it's a wonderful thing! *sigh*

Well seeing as I was pretty absent for the CASE Study last week, I felt I had some serious making up to do....

....so I challenged myself.....

....to try VINTAGE *gasp!*

I know what you're thinking. This is going to be a disaster. A card-crash on your screen so to speak. Just go with the flow OK and gimme some slack:

This is about as much vintage as I can embrace comfortably. It's actually still pretty simple in design thanks to some scrummy Crate Paper gorgeous-ness.

I was inspired by Karola's whole style: the scalloped edges, the twine and especially her use of Prima Flowers. Now I don't have any yellow Prima flowers so I made my own using PTI dies, lots of glue and glitter too!

Now don't be put off by my own take on Karola's card, check out what the rest of the CASE Study whipped up for ya:

Be sure to play along with us! Need even more persuasion? Well we have a sponsor this week! One lucky peep could win two stamp sets of their choice courtesy of My Thoughts Exactly. So what'cha waitin' for?!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and for tolerating this brief interruption of blog featuring CAS cards. Service will be resumed as normal asap *wink*

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

I hope for those of you that celebrated it, you had a *lovely* Valentine's Day! When asked by my gorgeous geek what I wanted, I replied:

No perfume (My scrummyshowergel does the job just fine!)

No flowers (I have hayfever....and come to think of it, no vases!)

No chocolates (I'm on a diet!)

I simply requested his undivided attention for a whole evening. Our lives seem so busy at times; it's like we hardly have a moment to pause and live for the moment. We spent our time together well: he was sweet enough to make some surprise cake pops! I was totally gobsmacked! He even presented them in a box - such attention to detail!

***Edited to insert piccy before I scoff 'em!***

What a guy! :)

I can happily report that my week so far has included lots of inky time as well as scoffin' - I'm wishing my mojo was more on form, but time won't wait for a moody mojo so I'm inking regardless :)

I find paper piecing pretty therapeutic - even the fiddly cutting keeps me happily occupied. I simply rooted through some of my scrap DP (admittedly there's not much of it as I try to face my hoarding of the stuff!) and pieced away!

I hope you're all having a fabby week so far! Stay tuned for tomorrow's CASE Study post - I'll warn you now that you'll wonder whose blog you're visiting once you see what I've whipped up - eek!

I'm not sure if my last-minute entry can ever do Karola's card justice, but here it is anyways:

I was totally inspired by the butterfly (no surprises there!), the polka dots, the elegant combo of navy and burgundy and the use of the stamped frame. I have that very frame in my own stamping stash so it was rude not to ink it up!

So if you've always been a bit of a procrastinator like me, or you fancy being one for CASE Study, grab those stamps and inks and get busy because the challenge closes on Tuesday at midnight EST!

Sunday, 12 February 2012

I hope you're having a super weekend! It's a little less white around here compared to last weekend but still kinda chilly (getting the most from my mittens I guess!)

Thank you so much for the positive and overwhelming response toUniko Studio! I just knew that you'd love those two sets and as a head's up for those across the pond:shipping info is now on the website for ya!

As you've probably guessed, I've been very inspired by both sets: inking 'em up like there's no tomorrow! Today I'm sharing a couple of cards that make the most from the smaller images in the sets.

This card features the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from Time partially inked to set it out at a right angle. I then inked up the circular pivot point of the clock hand in the lower corner and finally, I applied a post-it note vertically up from the 'Happy', inked up that clock hand in various colours and stamped. When I removed the post-it note, the hands turned into decorative arrows - ta dah!

More fun with a clock hand features on this next card:

Nope, there's not snowflakes or decorative mini-medallion stamp in the set Time, but a simple rotation of the decorative clock hand creates these cool patterns. I couldn't resist stamping them in grey - probably had something to do with the snow that was falling outside my window at the time :)

So there you have it: Clock hands disguised as decorative arrows and snowflakes/medallions! I hope you likey and if you do, be sure to keep up to date on theUniko Studio Blog and Uniko Studio's Facebook Page and take a peeky at thestoretoo of course!

Wishing you all a relaxing Sunday! I'm off to complete the chores I've been putting off, but the good news is that I have this week off to indulge in more inky time and catching up with everyone and everything in Blogland...yay!

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Hooray! The day has finally arrived that Uniko Studio is here for real and can reveal to the world its first two stamp sets called Time and Extra Time! I can't wait to show you what inky adventures I've been on with these two sets.

These stamps take ink and stamp like a dream! They take both dye and pigment/chalk inks very well and give fabulous results. Rest assured that here on my blog, I'll never endorse anything doesn't meet my own high (and at times perfectionist!) inky standard.

So that's enough gushing on how fabulously well these beauties stamp; lemme show you what I've made!

For today's post I want to share projects that give you a good idea of the main images in these sets:

So in keeping with the theme of time, how about a clock?

OK, OK so that's not exactly the clock from the set, but it's actually the clock in my living room. Both my guy and I adore our huge timepiece (the pic doesn't show big it is but believe me, it's big...and heavy!) and as soon as I laid eyes on 'Time' and 'Extra Time' I just knew I had to re-create my living room :)

This would make a not only a super classy birthday card, but an invite too methinks.

Now check out how well this set has been designed: You can actually set this clock to *any* time you desire as the clock hands and fingers are separate stamps and easy to position due to the clear nature of 'em. Sweet! As you can see, I decided that 8 o'clock is party time at my place *wink*

I used a simple masking technique here: I stamped the clock on a post-it and cut it out to create a mask. Then I covered my stamped clock on my card before inking up my large Hero Arts stamp and stamping the background. It just adds a touch more interest to a CAS design and still reminds me of my living room :)

Next up a card that I originally stamped as a friendship card, but the more I look at that sentiment, the more I think this would make a lovely sympathy card too:

I simply inked up those different clocks with different colours to create the background and stamped the sentiment over the top. To finish I mounted the card onto some scrummy, polka-dot Pink Paislee paper I've been hoarding to tie in with the circular clock faces.

Now one stamp that I just *had* to ink up from this set was the cool cogs! My immediate thought was Father's Day (I realise it's a way off yet, but it's good to be prepared when it comes to cards for the guys)

Now to tie in with the whole idea of those cogs being the internal workings of an instrument, I decided to brave a vellum card-base to echo that kinda internal feeling. PTI Vellum works pretty well for this as it's very sturdy and I kinda like the extra dimension it adds.

And seeing as I've covered a card for the guys, lemme share one for the gals:

Doesn't get much girlie than this, right? :)

I couldn't resist inking up the three different sized geometric flower designs from 'Time' in Versamark on vellum, dusting each one with chalk and cutting a layering them to create a pretty embellishment.

I'm loving how versatile 'Time' and 'Extra Time' are proving to be; They can cater for just about any occasion! I hope you can check out the new Uniko Studio store and pop across to the Uniko Studio Blog and say hi. I know this new business would really, really appreciate your welcome :)

Be sure to check back here tomorrow when I'll be sharing some designs with these stamps that are a little more out-of-the-box...

Thursday, 9 February 2012

This super cold (well, super cold in terms of living in the countryside of the Peak District) means that I haven't actually been home all week. I've been stopping over at my folks' to avoid any scary drives to work which has meant that my fingers are itching to ink and I'm following blogland via my phone LOL!

So with no card to share I truly urge you to check out what the rest of the CASE Study DT- who are way more organised than myself - whipped up for your viewing pleasure:

And before I dash, can I thank you all so much for the kind words about my Uniko Studio news. I'm so psyched to be designing for them, can't wait to share what I've made with their new stamps on Saturday and feel truly blessed by your sweet comments. Thank You!

Oooh and just one more thing - be sure to check out the Uniko Studio blog for a sneaky peek of the first sets to be released on Saturday. Exciting Stuff :)

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Happy Tuesday! (It's the final week of term here so I'm on countdown to the half term *wink*)

Sorry to disappoint but I've no card today. Instead, I'm sharing some news that I've wanted to shout from the rooftops for about a month now! It's been sooooo hard keeping quiet about it, but now I can say with pride that I'm going to be designing for a fabulous, new company: Uniko Studio

Uniko Studio officially opens Saturday 11th February (mark that date!) with the release of some super, new stamps!

Uniko Studio is owned by the lovely & talented Beverley Parish. I was beyond flattered & honoured when she emailed me to ask if I would join her on an inky adventure; it didn't take me long to say yes! :D

Now lemme just say that Beverley's design background combined with her own stamping passion has resulted in some seriously fabby stamps. These beauties are designed by a stamper for stampers. I can't wait to share with you some of the cards I've rustled up with 'em!

But in the meantime be sure to visit the Uniko Studio blog & bookmark the store for it's opening on Saturday!

Thank you for letting me spill the beans & I hope that like me, you're looking forward to checking out a new stamping company in town!

Eeek! I know! What a labour of love this card is! How on Earth can I do this card justice?! Well I took my inspiration from that lower left corner of DP on this beauty (the one with the bird and cage on) as well as the colour scheme and the theme of love and added a pinch of CAS style to create this:

OK so I was totally inspired by this card by the awesome Maile Belles too when it came to inking up this stamp set *wink*

Y'see, this is the thing I love about CASE Study: you can be totally inspired by styles that you may be too chicken not feel brave enough tackle that week and still play along :)